Heidi Murkoff

Murkoff conceived the idea for What to Expect When You're Expecting during her first pregnancy, when she couldn't find answers to her questions or reassurance for her worries in the books she’d turned to for advice. Determined to write a guide that would help other expectant parents sleep better at night, Murkoff delivered the proposal for What to Expect When You're Expecting hours before delivering her daughter.

Murkoff has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, Oprah, BBC Breakfast, and Good Morning Australia. In May 2012, Lionsgate released a film adaptation of What to Expect When You're Expecting, starring Cameron Diaz. Murkoff and her husband, Erik, served as executive producers, and Kirk Jones directed from a script by Shauna Cross and Heather Hach.

Heidi Murkoff is the author of the What to Expect When You're Expecting series of pregnancy guides. She is also the creator of WhatToExpect.com and founder of the What to Expect Foundation. Time magazine named Murkoff one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2011. In 2005, she was inducted into the Books For A Better Life Hall of Fame.

The sequel, What to Expect: The First Year, has sold over 10 million copies and is in its 2nd edition. Other titles in the series include What to Eat When You're Expecting, What to Expect Before You're Expecting (a preconception plan), and the newest member of the What to Expect series: What to Expect: the Second Year, a guide for parents of toddlers. The What to Expect books have sold more than 34 million copies in the U.S. alone and are published in more than 30 languages.

In 2005, Murkoff expanded the What to Expect (WTE) brand online with www.whattoexpect.com as a companion to the books. In 2009, WTE went mobile with the WTE Pregnancy Tracker, the WTE Fertility Tracker, the WTE Baby Name Finder, and the WTE First Year Tracker.